A Baby Cat Who Commands the Dog Clan - Chapter 8

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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Chapter 8
Concern flickered across my eyes.
‘Master is suffering from that dreadful affliction.’
Insomnia.
It was a difficult word for a child, but I understood its meaning precisely.
Because it was the very illness that had befallen my mother.
And it was my fault alone.
* * *
Around the time I had just turned five.
After being diagnosed as unable to cultivate inner strength, I was locked away in the Storage Room.
“Take that away and throw it in the Storage Room at once.”
Those were the words my mother spoke, pointing directly at me before my eyes.
Yet even locked away in that Storage Room, young as I was, I could not accept the truth.
“There must be some misunderstanding. Mother would never abandon me.”
In that cold, cheerless Storage Room, I wiped away my streaming tears, hugged my knees tightly, and repeated this to myself.
“Yes, Mother said those cruel things because she was ill. Delirious with fever… she must have mistaken me for someone else.”
It was unthinkable that Mother would speak so harshly to me.
Until now, Mother had always been kind to me.
‘If I go and explain what happened, Mother will be shocked and apologize to me.’
She would say she was sorry, that she had mistaken me for someone else.
And surely she would embrace me tightly, just as she always did.
The familiar scent of Mother’s skin seemed to linger at the tip of my nose, and I swallowed my tears, managing a small smile.
‘Then I must accept her apology gracefully.’
Though I was quite hurt, I loved Mother more than anyone in the world.
The small child comforted herself again and again in that corner of the Storage Room.
It was how I desperately suppressed the anxiety that threatened to overwhelm me.
“Yes, I’ll go see Mother!”
Though I steeled my resolve, the opportunity rarely came. The Storage Room door remained locked at all times.
It opened only once a day—when the maidservant Chung Ok brought cold rice.
Creak.
Just then, the old Storage Room door swung open. I seized the moment and cried out.
“Chung Ok! I’m going to see Mother!”
The instant I bravely stepped out through the doorway.
Chung Ok shoved my shoulder with a sharp push.
Yelp!
I let out a small cry and tumbled to the floor.
Even as I fell in confusion, I could not believe what had happened.
‘Chung Ok… pushed me?’
Chung Ok, who had always treated me with such kindness and deference!
“Chung Ok…?”
Looking up from below, Chung Ok wore an expression Hong Seol had never seen before.
Those coldly sharpened eyes belonged to no maidservant who had ever been kind to Hong Seol—she might have been a spy from the Nam Goong Family who had altered her face with disguise magic. The thought chilled her.
“The Madam does not wish to see you, Miss.”
Chung Ok’s sudden reversal left Hong Seol utterly bewildered. She could only blink, unable to form any words.
“So don’t waste your energy. Simply eat the food given to you here and behave yourself.”
“…That’s a lie!”
A moment later, a sorrowful cry burst forth.
Hong Seol shook her head vigorously, her eyes glistening with tears.
‘Mother would never not want to see me!’
Then Chung Ok’s lips twisted upward—a laugh of exasperation.
“Really, I’m telling you the truth. Besides, the Madam has been suffering from a terrible affliction called insomnia because of you lately. Why would she wish to see you?”
Insomnia?
Hong Seol froze as if her body had broken. The thought that Mother had fallen ill because of her struck terror into her heart.
“What is that?”
“It’s a sickness where you cannot sleep. The Madam cannot rest because her heart is torn apart over you, Miss!”
Perhaps because I could not bear to accept this cruel reality.
My thoughts suddenly veered in an unexpected direction.
‘If Mother sees my face, perhaps her sickness will be cured.’
My heart began to race.
Since childhood, Mother had always been that way. Even when she had headaches or stomach aches, she would smile brightly upon seeing me.
“Our Hong Seol’s face is a cure-all for every ailment.”
So surely this time too…!
I bit at my dry lips with my small fingers, lost in thought.
Watching me, Chung Ok muttered aloud as if speaking to herself.
“Goodness, really. What on earth are you thinking about? I’ve been so busy pounding and drying Sunrise Herb to cure the Madam’s insomnia that I haven’t had a moment’s rest.”
Sunrise Herb…?
Now that she mentioned it, I could smell a pungent herbal scent emanating from Chung Ok’s body.
I knew what that herb was—a common plant found everywhere, with leaves shaped like a baby’s palm.
Though I did not know whether it was truly effective for insomnia.
‘But Sunrise Herb is no longer necessary. I am Mother’s cure-all!’
I must hurry to Mother and heal her of this sickness called insomnia.
My cheeks, streaked with dried tears and grime, flushed a hopeful pink.
* * *
One day passed.
The moment Chung Ok stepped away with a bowl of thin rice porridge, I escaped.
“Oh, catch her!”
Patter-patter.
Leaving Chung Ok’s cry behind, I ran with all my might until I reached Je Gal Seon’s Quarters.
Creak.
As I opened the door, my hands trembled slightly.
“Mother!”
At the trembling voice, Je Gal Seon, who had been lying on the bed, slowly turned around.
Her hollow eyes met Hong Seol’s tear-brimmed gaze.
“….”
Had she stumbled and fallen to the ground in her rush?
Hong Seol’s face bore scratches here and there.
Her sunken cheeks spoke of days without proper nourishment.
The plain robes she hadn’t changed in many days were soiled and torn in several places.
Yet as Je Gal Seon’s gaze swept over Hong Seol’s appearance, there was no warmth in her eyes.
‘This is strange…. Why won’t Mother embrace me?’
Confronted with a response so unlike what she’d expected, Hong Seol grew restless.
In the end, it was the anxious Hong Seol who had to call out first.
“Mother….”
A nasal whimper escaped her constricted throat. Hong Seol found this deeply troubling.
She wanted to appear composed.
She wanted to tell her clearly how much she had worried about Mother.
But courage simply would not come.
For in her mother’s face, which she had not seen in so long, she felt no emotion whatsoever.
In that gaze lay only a coldness, as though she were looking at a pebble by the roadside.
“No, Miss!”
Chung Ok, the maidservant who arrived belatedly, breathed heavily.
“You mustn’t be here! Turn around and leave at once!”
Chung Ok grasped Hong Seol’s wrist roughly.
Smack!
Hong Seol boldly shook off that grip. Chung Ok’s eyes flared with anger.
“What do you think you’re doing!”
But Hong Seol heard none of Chung Ok’s words. In her eyes, only Mother—Je Gal Seon—existed.
Unlike the force with which she had rejected Chung Ok’s hand, she could not bring herself to act carelessly toward Mother.
Hong Seol barely managed to squeeze out her voice.
“Mother….”
It’s me.
I’m Hong Seol.
Didn’t you say this about me?
Didn’t you say my face was your panacea….
Though words crowded her mind, she could not find the courage to speak further.
Then Je Gal Seon opened her mouth toward Hong Seol.
“Turn around.”
“Pardon?”
Unable to understand her intent, Hong Seol blinked. Je Gal Seon spoke again in a flat voice.
“Turn around and walk straight ahead.”
“But that doesn’t make sense, Mother….”
“….”
Je Gal Seon said nothing.
It was a command to leave.
My small body trembled with sorrow. Yet Mother never relented in her words.
In the end, I had to turn away and step over the threshold, wiping my burning eyes with my tiny fists again and again.
The whispered conversation between Chung Ok and Mother that lingered behind made my misery all the more acute.
“And here I am losing sleep because of her! The audacity of this child, coming all the way here on her own two feet.”
“Indeed. Please don’t distress yourself, Madam. I’ll burn an incense pellet made from Sunrise Root. That should help you fall asleep right away.”
* * *
As the painful memory surfaced, my lips twisted downward of their own accord. Tears threatened to spill at any moment.
Mae Ran, misinterpreting my sorrowful expression, waved her hand dismissively.
“Insomnia isn’t a fatal illness, Miss! The Grand Matriarch is in good health, so please don’t worry too much.”
“Did the physician come and go? Did she take her medicine?”
I swallowed my tears and asked with considerable composure. But I couldn’t hide the nasal quality in my voice.
It was both pitiful and endearing. Mae Ran answered with an expression caught between laughter and tears.
“The Medical Pharmacy Director left before departing, and she prepared a decoction that usually works well. But it seems she’s developed a tolerance to it recently—it’s having no effect at all.”
“I see. Then the Grand Matriarch must be suffering terribly these days.”
My face fell with worry. My concern was genuine.
‘The Grand Matriarch is truly a kind person.’
She brought me from Dae Chuk Mountain and allowed me to stay here as a guest.
Not only that—she fed me well and dressed me in silk garments.
And now she was afflicted with this terrible illness of sleeplessness!
‘Is there any way I can help the Grand Matriarch?’
Lost in thought, I clenched my small fists tightly.

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This chapter was translated by Lunox Novels. To support us and help keep this series going, visit our website: LunoxScans.com
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